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Gina Arata had a bright future, wrapping up college and preparing for law school, when a 2001 car wreck left her with lasting brain damage. After her recovery, Arata wound up taking a job sorting mail, but struggled even in that. “I couldn’t remember anything,” said Arata, who lives in Modesto with her parents. “My left foot dropped, so I’d trip over things all the time. I was always in car accidents. And I had no filter — I’d get pissed off really easily.” But Arata is doing much better now, thanks to a device that doctors surgically implanted deep inside her brain in 2018. The experimental deep-brain stimulator is carefully calibrated to feed electrical activity to neural networks damaged by Arata’s brain injury. Now, a new study from Stanford researchers details how such implants help patients with brain injuries recover some of their thinking skills. For Arata, the difference was immediate. For example, the device allowed her to rattle off a list of fruits and vegetables when asked to name items found in the produce aisle of a grocery store. But when a researcher turned the device off, she couldn’t name a single one. “Since the implant, I haven’t had any speeding tickets,” Arata added. “I don’t trip anymore. I can remember how much money is in my bank account. I wasn’t able to… read on > read on >

Holiday festivities bring joy to many, but they also give rise to quite a few unhealthy habits, a new survey has found. Two-thirds of people say they overindulge in food during the holidays, and nearly half (45%) said they take a break from exercise, according to a new survey from Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. Meanwhile, a third admit they drink more alcohol during the holidays, and more than half report feeling tired and having less time for themselves. “Holiday travel, activities with friends and family, and trying to get a bunch of things done can cause people to lose track of their healthy habits,” said Dr. Barbara Bawer, a family medicine physician at Wexner. The survey involved 1,007 people polled between Oct. 20 and 23, with a 3.6 percentage point margin of error. Folks need to stick to their normal routine as much as possible to avoid starting unhealthy habits, Bawer said.. “Once you’re out of a routine, which typically happens around the holidays, it’s really hard to get back on track, partly because the motivation is no longer there,” Bawer said in a university news release. People should keep in mind that it’s okay to say no, whether it be for one more holiday party or one more rich dish at the buffet, Bawer said. Bawer also recommends that people: Maintain their… read on > read on >

Women who enter menopause early could be at increased risk of muscle loss in their senior years, a new study suggests. Conversely, the more extended a woman’s reproductive period, the lower the risk of declining muscle mass as measured by handgrip strength. “This study showed that a longer reproductive period and later age at menopause were linked to a lower risk of low handgrip strength in postmenopausal Korean women,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society. “This finding may relate to the beneficial effects of estrogen on skeletal muscle,” she added in a society news release. It’s projected that by 2045 more than 70% of people over 65 will be affected by sarcopenia, a decline in muscle mass and function that occurs as part of the aging process, researchers said in background notes. A woman’s reproductive lifespan — the time between the beginning and end of her periods — is known to affect the way she ages. However, no research has focused on the relationship between sarcopenia and the reproductive period, the researchers noted. The new study evaluated more than 2,300 postmenopausal Korean women between the ages of 45 and 75, testing their handgrip strength – one of the most common ways to check for muscle loss. Researchers found that the age at menopause was associated with reduced handgrip strength, but not… read on > read on >

SATURDAY, Dec. 2, 2023 (Healthday News) — The holidays are typically a happy whirlwind of gift-buying, house decorating, party planning and family gatherings, but all that work can also stress people out. Luckily, experts at UT Southwestern Medical Center say there are things you can do to keep your stress levels under control and help make your holidays happy. “Excess stress wears and tears on our bodies,” said Rita Smith, a clinical social worker in the Clinical Heart and Vascular Center at UT Southwestern. “The best holiday gifts you can give yourself are equal doses of self-care and grace.” Start with realistic expectations, which will ease the pressure of trying to be perfect. Remembering the holidays are all about gratitude will also help, said Sarah Woods, vice chair of research in UT Southwestern’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. “Think about what you’re grateful for and put it in writing,” Woods suggested in a university news release. “Focusing on the good can help you relax and cope with the not-so-good.” Another stressor during the holidays? Money. Smith said it’s best to make a spending plan for gifts and celebrations because holiday debts can be overwhelming. So, try to be practical yet creative with your gifting. Then there’s family relationships, which are sometimes strained. Woods said stress linked to difficult family relationships can produce more cortisol.… read on > read on >

A new study of identical twins has provided fresh evidence that a vegan diet can vastly improve a person’s heart health. Twins assigned a vegan diet for two months had significant improvements in cholesterol, insulin and body weight compared to their siblings, who ate a healthy diet that included animal protein. “Based on these results and thinking about longevity, most of us would benefit from going to a more plant-based diet,” said researcher Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. It’s well-known that cutting back on meat consumption improves heart health, but differences between participants in diet studies — things like genetics, upbringing and lifestyle choices — make it hard for researchers to draw definitive conclusions. Gardner and his colleagues chose to study identical twins because they share the same genetics, grew up in the same household and often have similar lifestyles. “Not only did this study provide a groundbreaking way to assert that a vegan diet is healthier than the conventional omnivore diet, but the twins were also a riot to work with,” Gardner noted in a university news release. “They dressed the same, they talked the same and they had a banter between them that you could have only if you spent an inordinate amount of time together.” The research team recruited 22 pairs of identical twins… read on > read on >

Got a naturally sunny disposition? It might protect you from dementia as the years advance, new research shows. A team at Northwestern University in Chicago report that certain personality traits — being conscientious, outgoing and positive — appear to lower a person’s odds for a dementia diagnosis. On the other hand, being neurotic and more negative in outlook and behavior was tied to a higher risk for mental decline, the same study found. The good news: Daily behaviors are probably the key factor here, and behaviors can be changed. People’s personalities can influence whether or not daily habits are healthy or unhealthy for the brain, explained a team led by researcher Eileen Graham, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern. “Neuroticism is related to dementia decline, and people with neuroticism are more prone to anxiousness, moodiness and worry, whereas conscientious people are more likely to exercise, make and go to preventive health appointments and drink less,” Graham said in a university news release. “So, maybe that’s where an intervention might be useful to improve someone’s health behaviors for better health outcomes,” Graham reasoned. The new analysis focused on what psychologists have long called the “Big Five” personality traits: conscientiousness, extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism and agreeableness. Graham’s team looked at data from eight studies. Together, the studies included more than 44,000 people —… read on > read on >

Doing some squats during commercial breaks or between YouTube videos can help couch potatoes keep their minds sharp, a new study suggests. Young volunteers who did short sets of squat exercises every now and then while relaxing performed better in brain games than when they simply sat around for hours, researchers report. Short bursts of exercise might help the brains of people who spend long periods on the couch or behind a desk, the study concluded. “Our half-squat intervention may be able to be used by individuals seeking to break up their sedentary behavior in an effort to preserve cognition during times, such as in the workplace,” the researchers wrote. For the study, a group of young adult volunteers participated in two scenarios: sitting without interruption for three hours; or sitting for three hours but performing a minute of half-squats every 20 minutes. In both settings, the researchers measured volunteers’ blood pressure, blood flow through the carotid artery — which accounts for 75% of total blood flow to the brain — and heart rate after 10 minutes, one hour, two hours and three hours. At the end of each trial, the volunteers completed three thinking tests. In one test, participants were asked to quickly identify if a word they were shown – “red,” “blue,” “yellow,” “green” or “black” – was printed in the same color… read on > read on >

Bodybuilders are largely unaware that the protein supplements they use to bulk up might harm their fertility, a new study shows. Four out of five male gym enthusiasts (79%) said they use protein supplements as part of their fitness plan, the poll found. But only 14% had considered how those supplements — which contain high levels of the female hormone estrogen — might impact their fertility, researchers found. “Too much female hormone can cause problems with the amount and quality of sperm that a man can produce,” explained lead researcher Meurig Gallagher, an assistant professor studying infertility at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. Men taking these protein supplements also might be unintentionally dosing themselves with steroids, Gallagher added. “Many protein supplements that can be bought have been found to be contaminated by anabolic steroids, which can cause reduced sperm count, shrunken testicles and erectile dysfunction, amongst other things,” Gallagher said. For this study, Gallagher and his colleagues surveyed 152 avid gym-goers. They found that more than half (52%) of male participants had thought about their fertility prior to being asked. “We found that men are genuinely curious about their fertility when prompted, but that they don’t think about it on their own – likely because societally people still think of fertility as a ‘female issue’ and [incorrectly] believe that men’s fertility doesn’t change… read on > read on >

The repeat head injuries suffered by football players, boxers and other athletes appear to affect brain health long after players have given up their sport. New research from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore could explain why: The persistence in the brain of inflammation tied to the original injury or injuries. “The findings show that participating in repeated collision sports like football may have a direct link to long-term inflammation in the brain,” study senior author Dr. Jennifer Coughlin said in a university news release. She’s an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Hopkins. Key to the new findings is a brain “repair protein,” with the unwieldy name of 18 kDa translocator protein — shortened to TSPO. Whenever a brain sustains injury, TSPO levels quickly rise as the brain tries to heal. TSPO is closely associated with immune cells in the brain called microglia, Coughlin’s group noted. It was thought that spikes in TSPO were only temporary. However, prior studies revealed that levels of the pro-inflammatory protein can remain elevated for up to 17 years. In the new study, the Hopkins team examined PET and MRI brain scans of 27 former NFL players, taken between 2018 and early 2023. They used the scans to compare levels of TSPO in the football players’ brains to those seen in brain scans of 27 former pro college… read on > read on >

FRIDAY, DEC. 1, 2023 (Healthday News) — Millions of American kids and teens love to play the game of baseball, but the sport can leave many with elbow pain and injuries, new research finds. “When we look at the forces that baseball players, even Little League baseball players, deal with during routine practice and games, it becomes apparent why elbow injuries are so common amongst this group,” said study co-author Vandan Patel, a radiology-orthopedics research scholar at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Philadelphia. Recent estimates show that 20% to 40% of youth baseball players between the ages of 9 and 12 complain of elbow pain at least once during the season, the researchers noted. “This does not mean that elbow injuries are inevitable in baseball,” Patel noted. “With proper technique and proper rest, these injuries could potentially be avoided.” What sets these youngsters up for injury in the first place? Throwing a baseball repeatedly stresses the growing bones, joints and muscles of the elbows of players. “We conducted this study in order to better understand the patterns of injuries that can occur among youth baseball players with elbow pain,” said senior study author Dr. Jie Nguyen, director for the section of musculoskeletal imaging in CHOP’s Department of Radiology. “A younger player injures differently than an older player. It is our hope that this data… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Head Injury Left Her Memory-Impaired. A New Brain Implant Has Brought Memory Back

Do You Overindulge During the Holidays? Poll Finds You’re Not Alone

Timing of Menopause Could Affect a Woman’s Muscle Loss

Trim Your Holiday Stress This Season: Experts Offer Tips

Identical Twins Study Shows Vegan Diets Helping the Heart

Your Personality Might Help Shield You From Dementia

Couch Potatoes, ‘Squatting Breaks’ Could Keep Your Mind Sharp

Most Men Taking Bodybuilding Supplements Don’t Know They Can Harm Fertility

Persistent Inflammation Could Drive Brain Issues in Former Football Players

Baseball Puts Kids’ Elbows at Risk, Study Shows